


the master, the padawan, the Force

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Kanan (Comics), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Jedi Culture & Tradition (Star Wars), Jedi Temple (Star Wars), Jedi Training (Star Wars), Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Padawan Kanan Jarrus, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 00:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30131157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Caleb expects things to be different after Master Depa takes him as her padawan, but really, it feels like nothing really changes.
Relationships: Depa Billaba & Kanan Jarrus
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2021





	the master, the padawan, the Force

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Independence1776](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Independence1776/gifts).



Caleb expects things to be different after Master Depa takes him as her padawan, but really, it feels like nothing really changes. Master Depa is still healing, undergoing physical therapy to build up the muscles lost while she was in the bacta tank, and Caleb is in the middle of a course rotation that Master Depa  _ very firmly _ told him he has to finish. 

So Caleb wakes up, pulls on his tunics, and tries to braid his padawan braid himself. It doesn’t go well, his fingers too clumsy to work with such a short length of hair, and he resigns himself to asking for help. 

Master Depa’s quarters are a lot quieter than the initiate dorms, even in the busier section of the Temple where her new rooms are located, since the last ones were blown up. Caleb hadn’t really expected her to choose rooms with a padawan quarter; now with the war, a lot of masters with new padawans just choose to stay in the knight dormitories, their padawans staying in the padawan dorms. Most master-padawan pairs were so infrequently in the Temple now anyway that it hardly mattered where they stayed when they were here. 

Part of him wishes they could’ve stayed in her old rooms—he’d liked the sound of running water in the background as they’d talked—but these rooms aren’t bad. He’s got a window overlooking the Room of a Thousand Fountains, so that’s pretty cool. 

He opens the door to his room and peaks out; yesterday morning, Master Depa had already left four a meeting with the Council, but today she’s still seated on a round meditation cushion, eyes closed and hands resting on her knees. She has her legs folded directly beneath her, not like how Master Sholle taught Sando Clan. 

Master Depa seems so calm and peaceful that Caleb hesitates in the doorway, not wanting to disturb her. She had admitted to fear and to failure, and she was a master—she would want to meditate on her feelings, surely, and he shouldn’t interrupt—

“Come, Caleb,” comes Master Depa’s voice, quiet and gently amused. When he looks at her face, her eyes are still closed, but she’s smiling just a little. “Meditate with me, if you will?”

Caleb bites his lip, considers, then crosses the room and joins his master, climbing up onto another of the cushions. He eyes Master Depa’s pose, but decides to stick with Master Sholle’s method, and crosses his ankles, shifting to get comfortable on the soft cushion. He’s used to mats, and it’s harder to keep his back straight as he closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing. 

He has questions— _ lots _ of questions—and the hair of his undone braid is tickling his neck, but he breathes in and out, focusing on the flow of air through his lung, of the Force through the room and the Temple beyond. He’d meditated yesterday, of course, but Master Depa had been gone most of the day, and it was harder, by himself. Especially when he was still trying to work through the tangle of emotions leftover from the bombing and his being chosen as a padawan. 

It’s so quiet in these rooms; he’s used to meditating with the sounds of Sando Clan in the background, the littler younglings down the hall—the Force felt so different here, away from the bright chaos of the crèche. He can  _ feel  _ the vast calm of the Room of a Thousand Fountains from here, the generations’ worth of deliberate, thoughtful peace that had been instilled into the room itself. Caleb can hear Master Depa’s steady breathing, can sense the sway of her consciousness in the Force, but can’t feel anything more specific—

“I can feel your questions from here, little one,” Master Depa says, and now he can feel amusement from her again. It makes him a little embarrassed, but amusement is better than Madam Nu’s exasperation or his agemate’s teasing. “Go ahead and ask.”

Caleb thinks, weighing each question carefully—there’s a  _ lot  _ of them, especially since he barely saw Master Depa at all yesterday, and he isn’t quite sure where to start.

Oh. Well,  _ that’s  _ something.

“Was Master Windu on the Council when he took you as a padawan?”

Master Depa sighs, and when Caleb cracks one eye open she’s shifting to cross her ankles instead and opening her own eyes. She nods, and Caleb opens his eyes fully. She purses her lips, quiet for a few seconds, before saying, “He wasn’t, but he was chosen as a Council member when I was a senior padawan. It certainly—changed my apprenticeship. I was sent on more missions with other masters, or other senior padawans, and Mace did not have the same time to attend to my teaching. That’s why it is generally discouraged for Councilors to take on a padawan.”

Caleb nods and wonders if it will be the same for him, or if the war will change things even more. He says, “But with the war—”

She sighs again, deeper this time. 

“With the war, we are often finding that we have no other choice. In this, and many other issues.”

Caleb turns this over in his mind. It makes sense, and it doesn’t make him feel like she’s regretting taking him on, as he would’ve thought before now. It feels like she’s acknowledging something that’s true, something she has no control over, and laying it aside.

“Why is your meditation form so different from mine?” Caleb asks next, when it becomes clear she doesn’t have anything else to add. 

Master Depa smiles. “I enjoy the challenge of it.” When Caleb cocks his head to one side, confused, she continues, “To sit on my knees requires better balance and concentration, as does a softer seat. Focusing inward first allows me mastery of the self, and then I can turn that mastery outward.”

It sounds weird—different from how Master Sholle and Master Yoda explained it to him—but he guesses it must work. She is a master on the High Council after all. 

“What about—”

The chrono on the wall chimes, and Master Depa stands in one even motion, smoothing out her tabards with a hand. She offers the other to Caleb, and he takes it, letting her help him up. She lets go of him and reaches out to tweak the loose hair that’s meant to be his padawan braid and says, “It’s time for you to get breakfast and head to class, padawan mine. Tell me which classes you have today while I fix this, hm?”

Caleb laughs and rubs a hand on the back of his neck, letting Master Depa maneuver him around. “Yes, Master.”

And she listens while he tells her about Master Notak’s Niman workshop, and his diplomacy of Mid-Rim course with Master Vokeln, and Master Yoda’s lessons on controlled falls, and all the while Master Depa smoothes out his hair between her fingers and twists it into a short braid. Caleb can’t wait until it grows out longer and he can fit a bead or two—should Master Depa see fit to gift him with one. 

Before she finishes, he asks the question that’s always sort of bothered him. “Master, why do padawans wear braids?”

“Well,” she says, frowning and releasing his hair, letting the braid unravel from between her fingertips before starting over again. “I’m sure you’ve heard the traditional refrain: the master, the padawan, and the Force intertwined as one. But I think it’s a bit more practical than that. It’s a lot easier, in such a diverse community, to tell the younglings from the adults if there’s a physical mark.”

And then she winks. 

Caleb smothers a giggle into his hand and then tries to hold still for her. 

Once done, she stands back and places both hands on his shoulders. She regards him for a moment before saying, “It seems you have much to do today. But if you are not too busy, I would be honored if you would meet me in training salle enth four after lunch. I should be finished with my meetings by then.”

Caleb beams up at her. Tai and Sammo had made Master Depa sound  _ awful, _ and he’s never been so glad to have them proven wrong. 

“I’d love to, Master.”

And with that, she sees him to the door, smiling bright and kind.

Maybe things aren’t that different from before, he thinks as he heads to the cafeteria. But they’ve changed in all the ways that really counts. 


End file.
